But why does Gretsch make badges that have their name both right side up and upside down? It must be a Jeep thing, I guess.

The Big R Rogers badges are HUGE and ugly.

Ludwig's pointy blue/olive badges are pretty bad. Not only are the colors unattractive, but the pointy ends would get caught on your clothes or bags tearing holes in them and bending the badge. Bad design.

I didn't know Peavey made drums. What is going on with those black rubber rim gizmos???

Yes but then we couldn't have a thread complaining about them, where's the fun in that? Peavey drums had those weird collars or what have you. Strange shape, but there were at least 11 people who liked them and purchased them, at least 11, probably more.

I love my Rogers drums but I'm going to have to agree with you there. The script badge was so simple and elegant, the Swivo hardware so clean yet functional. Then they go to these giant square badges with hardware that looks like plumbing fixtures. I'm sure they are just as good as the Swivo stuff but I have never bought a Big R era Rogers because I just think they're too ugly.

Center mounted badges yet offset mounting hardware. Must make it really easy to flip the drums in the middle of a set. I guess when you flip the toms you just have to play them 4+ inches higher than when the drums were mounted the other way. Not to mention your tom depths will all vary in height making your drums vary in batter head height from each other. Brilliant.

What makes the premier lines of Peavey drums unique is the patented Radial Bridge System. The idea behind the Radial Bridge System is to create head tension without weighing down the shell with lugs and bolts that interfere with its resonance. The head tension is taken by heavy wooden hoops that support the heads with no mounting hardware attached to the shells. This allows the shells to perpetuate a louder and longer sustaining sound.

Peavey Radial Pro 1000 and RBS-1 tom-toms are made with thin 1/10 of an inch thick, three-ply shells, and the bass drums with five ply shells. Conversely, Peavey's snare drums are made with heavy 1 3/4 inch thick shells that bring out the high overtones in the snare sound.

Center mounted badges yet offset mounting hardware. Must make it really easy to flip the drums in the middle of a set.

That wasn't the idea. Who would rotate their toms in the middle of a set?

Their intent was to allow positioning either way, not for easy rotating. The drums will move and feel a bit different (and probably sound different) depending how they're mounted. Sakae toms are mounted from below too. If you use RIMS on your toms, you can mount them from below to permit closer positioning.